SEL1650 - Long exposure artifact/flare

I just shot a few picture of the Olympic Stadium here in Montreal the other night, and I was surprised to see some artifact around the lights with the kit lens (Sony E 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS) on the NEX-3N. The thing is, all my shots are exhibiting this issue, but it tends to attenuate moving to the long end of the zoom.

I know the lens is not the best performer, and it kind of get really bad on the wide end, but that it comes to this extent is worrying me. The weird thing is that other than that the shot is plenty sharp, but it looks like the glass gives some *flare* in this particular condition.

Yeah, the kit lens is not totally immune to flare, and the contrast difference is quite extreme in this lighting situation. If it's actually lens flare, the only thing you could do against it would be altering the composition until the flares don't show up anymore, which is pretty impractical, or you can clone it out if you take some time.

Alright, so yesterday I managed to do a few tests with the lens. I was able to reproduce the problem easily using a LED, and it appeared to be actually flare. I compared it with two old minoltas, and the 16-50 is really heavily prone to flare and ghosting, at least in this specific setup :disturbed:.